The Deputy Prime Minister has announced that at least £540 million of the government’s home energy efficiency programme – worth £1.3bn per year – will be targeted at helping the poorest.

In his speech, Nick Clegg said “We will be requiring the energy companies to provide an estimated £1.3bn a year of support for energy efficiency in our homes with at least £540m to fund energy saving improvements in the worst off homes.

This includes:

Around £350m a year to deliver heating and insulation measures to around 270,000 low income and vulnerable households by 2015, helping them to heat their homes to a healthy level and demonstrating our commitment to tackling fuel poverty

For those living in the poorest areas, including in social housing, specific support worth around £190m a year will be available from the energy companies to upgrade homes and flats with loft and cavity wall insulation, as well as other insulation measures, to make them warmer and cheaper to run.

Also:

A large proportion of the Energy Company Obligation will still be targeted at solid wall insulation, but support will be opened up for more measures than before – including hard to treat cavity walls. And where solid wall or hard to treat cavity insulation is being installed this can be accompanied by other measures which reduce heat loss from a property, such as glazing and draught proofing.

Energy companies will be allowed to carry forward overachievement against their targets under the current Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and count it towards their ECO targets.

These changes will help smooth the transition for the insulation industry between current schemes and the Green Deal. We will continue work with this industry to see if there is more we can do to help them manage the impacts of the transition.

(from DECC bulletin)

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